Monday at 3pm. That’s when I get on a plane and start my journey to Nottingham, and the Main Event on UFC on FuelTV 5. People a lot smarter than me would probably say that the journey started a long time ago. But I’m not that smart. I just mean that my flight leaves at 3pm. So don’t read too much into it!

Anybody that knows me, knows that I absolutely hate flying. Hate it. I swear if it wouldn’t take a week I would rather get over there on a boat. There is nothing worse than riding in a cramped seat for hours on end.

But let’s be honest… I really don’t have any room to bitch. I’m unbelievably excited for the next week of my life. I know there are going to be interviews, workouts, pictures, more interviews, meet and greets, and more interviews. And at the end of it all I get to step into the octagon and put on a show for the amazing fans in the UK. I’ve heard a lot about the fans over there, and can’t wait to meet a bunch of them.

This camp was pretty brutal. My coaches know how to push me to my limits. I even got to train a few days with Tim Sylvia. I truly believe that I need to get better every day, and I think I did that. I am more ready for this fight than any other fight in my career.

I just want to thank my family and friends for leaving me alone through this camp! And my coaches and teammates for helping me get better each day. Big Tim Sylvia, THANK YOU for taking the time to help me out. And of course my sponsors who made this camp possible. Fear The Fighter, Masters of Disaster, MusclePharm, Hyabusa, Topps Cards, Tim Lally Chevy, Murphys Ale House, and CorinthianCorsos.com

I have been setting goals pretty much my entire life. I wanted to wrestle Division I in college. I wanted to play baseball in college. I wanted to fight in the UFC. I wanted to be the Main Event some day. It was never my goal to have my own signature walk out t-shirt, but holy crap!!! I’m going to need about 30 boxes of them to hand out to all my family and friends.

Most of you probably already know this, but I signed on with Fear The Fighter for my next fight. I’m super excited to get to work with this amazing company. I thought I was going to be their Big Announcement last week, but then they announced Dan Hardy a couple of days later. And since I base everything on Twitter followers, I realized I wasn’t their Big Announcement. They signed up a bunch of guys from the Nottingham fights, so be prepared to see a lot of that logo up top.

I don’t know if other fighters can make these kinds of decisions easier than I can. But seeing how they treat their fighters was a big reason for me signing with them. Just read this and you will see what I’m talking about. Taking care of people like they are family, and understanding their hardships are the kinds of qualities that mean a lot to me. And I’m not just talking about sponsors. I try to surround myself with people like that, so signing with Fear The Fighter, at the end of the day, made a lot of sense. So please support me, and this amazing company.

When I stepped into the octagon for the first time I already knew that I had won. I was surrounded by family and friends that had been in my life for a long time. From my immediate family to all my cousins that might as well be immediate family too. These are the same people that are there today. But along the way I have gained support from some amazing people. Every time I log onto facebook or twitter I can’t believe the amount of good luck messages I get. No matter how tired I am from training, when I get home I always check them out and try to respond to everyone.

To my family and friends, to my teammates and coaches at Strong Style, to sponsors that are helping me realize my dreams, I really just want to say thanks. I’m truly living the dream, and I try to remember that every day. I’m going to go out there on Sept. 29 and do everything in my power to put on one hell of a show for you guys!

I’m going to have a lot of family in Nottingham, including my father coming from Croatia. Oh and my mom is going to make the trip to come watch me fight. Why is this news? Because she has never watched me fight before. Not once. Not in person, not on tv….never. Not one freaking time has she watched one of my fights. She is always the first call I make after a fight. Guess I have to find someone else to call after this one.

So we are kicking around ideas for this blog at the fire house today. One of the guys said I should link to a bunch of stuff that I like. Sounds like a good idea to me. I will see how many I can come up with myself and maybe a few from the guys here as well. If that isn’t enough, I may take to Twitter to see if I can get any cool ideas. There will be no rhyme or reason to any of these. It’s just stuff I like. I hope you dig this. If you do, I may make it a regular thing.

So you all know about the fighter summit held every year in Las Vegas right? This year was the first one I have ever been to. And it was all sorts of awesome. The conferences were pretty cool. And it was excellent to see some old friends and meet some new people. Most of all it was nice to take a little vacation. I really needed it. I pretty much shut out everything for a few days and recharged the batteries. I was thinking about tweeting about it during the event, but then I started reading Scott Jorgensen and a few other guys tweets and realized that I could not possibly do any better.

We had a conference on how to use Twitter. We had a conference on tattoos. We had a conference on PED’s. It was a lot of sitting and listening to people talk. But it was in Vegas. So I’m definitely not complaining.

But we weren’t in meetings the entire time. Also got a chance to see a lot more of Vegas than I did when I fought there. The highlight of the trip? Riding a horse. Because I’m a cowboy!!!